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Street dogs in Sri Lanka are as much a part of the culture as beaches, palm trees, and coconuts.

They’ve been roaming the streets for decades, and today there are approximately three million street dogs on the island.

UK vet Janey Lowes was backpacking around Sri Lanka in May 2014 when she noticed the plight of the street dogs. While the dogs themselves aren’t an issue – they often have a human guardian who feeds them – the fact that they don’t have access to veterinary care is.

Every year, there are an estimated 26,000 road traffic accidents involving street dogs, not to mention the thousands that fall ill from other causes, especially because they don’t have access to neutering and vaccinations.

‘As a vet (and I’m sure many vets can relate), it was frustrating to be skilled enough to help but in another country with no equipment or supplies with me, or any idea of where to start with seeking help for dogs in need,‘ Janey tells Metro.co.uk.

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‘I felt so helpless.’

Janey – who won UK Vet of the Year in 2016 – went home to Newcastle, determined to make a change. She considered volunteering for other charities but there were very few options, and none that fitted her personal views and ethics.

‘I feel super lucky to have the best job in the world, and I wanted to make sure I could use my skills to help as many animals as possible,’ Janey explains.

‘I wanted to come at it from a different angle, as not many charities are veterinary-run.’

So, she went to seek advice from her boss in the UK, who gave her £10,000 to set up a charity – and WECare Worldwide was born.

‘It took about five months to get set up, so I flew back out to Sri Lanka in October 2014,’ says Janey.

‘I started by working out where we could be the most helpful and have the biggest sustainable impact, which is hard when you are surrounded by ‘need’ everywhere.’

Janey began with a team which included local vet Dr Nuwan, local volunteer, Malaka, and tuk tuk driver Chaminda, who she paid to drive them around looking for dogs.

Sick and injured dogs were treated either at Janey’s home in Tallalla on the south coast, or on the side of the road in a needs-must situation.

In December 2014, WECare did its first neutering programme in the local villages, and carried out multiple neutering programmes, neutering 735 dogs in the first year, as well as vaccinating 956 dogs and treating 202 dogs.

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By January 2016, Janey’s house was full to bursting, and she realised she needed a different base for the charity.

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She rented an old school in a nearby village, which had a secure, walled garden that recovering dogs could play in, and got by for another year with the help of local and UK volunteers.

However in January 2017, there was no money left, and just as Janey was at the point of giving up, WECare was featured in a BBC documentary, and donations surged, allowing her to slowly build the clinic she and her team of local and international staff work from today – which is one of the best equipped vet hospitals on the island.

WECare’s main point of difference is that it’s veterinary-run, which means the dogs get the best care they can – and it’s enabled Janey to train up the local veterinary staff who work with her.

She currently has 10 full-time and 12 part-time local staff, and also helps train other local vets, to improve vet standards across the board.

‘It’s a mutually beneficial relationship as Sri Lankan vets have so much knowledge about diseases we don’t see in the UK and so I am constantly learning from them, as well as imparting some of my wisdom along the way,’ says Janey.

This is Baxter, a puppy who got rehomed recently (Picture: WECare Worldwide)

WECare treats dogs across the Southern Province, and now also runs programmes in Arugam Bay on the east coast.

It focuses on three main areas – CNVR (capture, neuter, vaccinate, release), treatments, and education.

The team are alerted to sick or injured street dogs by locals, and they also drive around in tuk tuks searching for them.

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Poorly dogs are taken back to the clinic for treatment, and when better, are either released back onto the streets if it’s safe to do so, or in cases where it’s better for the dog to have a permanent owner – puppies, for example, who only have a 20-30% chance of reaching their first birthday on the streets – are put up for adoption.

The CNVR programme helps address the overpopulation issue in a humane and sustainable manner, and works towards eradicating rabies nationwide.

Locals can also bring their pet dogs in to the clinic for treatment, which is charged at a very reduced rate, which promotes responsible animal ownership.

Neutering and vaccination is free for both street and owned animals.

Dobby, recovering after having a huge tumour removed from his face – without WECare, he would have died a slow and painful death (Picture: WECare Worldwide)

It’s important to note that there’s a difference between street dogs and stray dogs.

Street dogs have been living in the communities of Sri Lanka for generations, and most have a human guardian AKA food source, who will feed them leftover food – so there are actually very few emaciated street dogs.

Therefore – and this might sound confusing to a UK pet owner – taking dogs off the street is not what WECare is about.

It’s there to plug the gap and give the dogs vet care.

‘There’s this generalisation that people think it’s cruel for dogs to be on the street, that they don’t have cuddles every night, they don’t eat steak for dinner, they don’t get to go to doggy daycare – but it’s just different over here,’ explains Janey.

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‘They’re not stray dogs, so it’s not like in England where pet dogs are dumped on the street and left to die (although this can happen here, but very rarely).

‘These dogs have been on the streets for generations and generations, so to take them in to homes – to even take them indoors, most have never been indoors – is really quite stressful for them once they get to a certain age.

‘They’re so happy beause they have their freedom. You can see them when they’re charging up and down the beach chasing each other, or when they’re on a mission in the morning to the nearest roti shop, you can see the joy in their eyes.

‘To take that away from them is not what WECare’s about. We don’t believe in scooping up three million dogs to put them in a shelter because for street dogs, that’s like prison.

‘Our job is to provide veterinary care and to let dogs be dogs.’

Reggie was brought in with skin disease, and then rehomed (Picture: WECare Worldwide)

With three million street dogs on the island, does it sometimes feel like a never-ending task?

‘Yeah, it does, and sometimes you do get a bit disheartened at that,’ admits Janey.

‘But then you take a step back and look at how many dogs you’ve helped – which is about 6,000 dogs so far.

‘When you think that’s 6,000 out of three million, that’s a drop in the ocean, but each of those dogs is an individual life.

‘When I get disheartened, I just go look at all the street dogs we’ve helped and remember that they would potentially have had a really slow, painful death if we hadn’t been around.’

Say hi to Eddie (Picture: WECare Worldwide)

What’s been the most heartbreaking case?

‘Honestly, it’s so hard to pick; we see them on a daily basis,’ says Janey, who won the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award in 2016.

‘We regularly see dogs that have had hot water thrown over them, dogs that have had half their faces blown off after eating the little bombs that locals put down for wild boars, dogs with extensive maggot wounds, injuries from wild boar attacks, and we see a lot of paralysis cases, often stemming from road traffic accidents.

‘There have been some really tricky cases and honestly, it’s so hard to single one out as we spend a lot of our time seeing things that will never leave our memory. It’s what spurs us on in a way, though.’

One of the biggest struggles the charity faces is the difference in culture.

‘It’s very different to the UK,’ explains Janey.

‘It’s not wrong – it really annoys me when Westerners flounce in here and say everything is wrong and everything we do in the West is right. That’s not true at all.

‘It’s just different. And that does cause problems for us sometimes. There’s a lot of things I’ve seen here where I’ve gone, “Oh! Why do we overcomplicate that in the West?” So, it’s not wrong, it’s just different.

‘The approach to animals and the attitude towards animals are different.’

The team also faces issues being largely female.

‘The fact that we’re females, that we’re Western females, that we’re young females – that can cause problems,’ reveals Janey.

‘There are also some difficulties with political aspects of being here in Sri Lanka. So it tends to be all the red tape that winds you up. And that shouldn’t be our biggest issue.

‘Dealing with the most horrific states of animals I’ve ever seen, daily – that should be our biggest struggle.

‘We’re experts in being vets but we’re not experts in dealing with logistics and bureaucracy, so they’re the things that take a lot of commitment to overcome.

‘We’d do anything for an animal – we’d stay up all night for an animal as often as we needed to, but unfortunately, we also have to commit to going to the same government office six times to get one signature from one person.

‘That really grinds you down, but it’s the way it is here and it’s all part of the charm of this paradise island- everything runs on ‘Sri Lanka time’.’

WECare is also hard at work on another cultural difference – the attitude towards street dogs.

‘People grow up being told that street dogs will give them rabies and that every dog is diseased,’ explains Janey.

‘So kids are very much warned against touching dogs and they’ll scream if one comes near them, which is quite difficult when the dogs are everywhere and roaming the streets.

‘It’s easy to say, “Those stupid kids, those stupid parents”, but if you were a parent and you’d been told that if your child touched a dog they’d get rabies, you’d do anything to keep them away from your child.

‘So, we have an education programme where we go into schools and talk to the younger generations about general animal welfare and community dog care.

‘The risks are extremely low in terms of catching anything at all from just touching a friendly street dog (and most of them are super friendly!).

‘It’s about educating and telling them what to do if they get bitten, how to avoid getting bitten, how to approach dogs kindly – even how to put water down for them, because often pet dogs down here won’t have a water bowl.’

However, it’s not all bad. When asked to pick the best part of her job, Janey struggles.

‘Oh man, there’s so many!’ she says.

‘The dogs are amazing – being able to help them and just see the relief in their eyes is incredible.

‘When you go pick up a street dog they might give you the run around for a little while, but as soon as you get your hands on them, scoop them up, and get them in the tuk tuk, you can just feel their whole body relax.

‘It’s like they know you’re there to help them, and it sounds so corny but honestly, when you feel it, you know. When you look in their eyes, they know you’re there to help them survive. It’s amazing.

‘I feel like it is what I was put on this earth to do – something always felt missing when I was working as a vet in the UK, but being in Sri Lanka makes you remember why you became a vet in the first place, to help as many animals in need as possible.

‘And man, are some of these animals in need.’

Street dogs chilling on the beach (Picture: WECare Worldwide)

‘Sometimes people in the UK say to us, “Why should we give money to dogs in Sri Lanka?” but in my eyes, we’re one world,’ says Janey.

‘This dog in need could be from London, it could be from Timbuktu – it’s still a dog in desperate need of a helping hand.

‘We’re extremely lucky in the UK where we have tens of thousands of animal charities and honestly, the diseases and injuries I’ve seen in Sri Lanka are one hundred times worse than the worst thing I’ve seen in UK.

‘These dogs are in desperate need. As a nation of animal lovers, it would be cool for us to stand up and say, “Our dogs are pretty lucky but there are other animals suffering around the world and we’re going to do something to help them”.’

Janey and pooch Bella (Picture: WECare Worldwide)

So, what’s the best way for people to get involved and help WECare?

‘At the minute, the best way people can help is to donate money, as we still need another £40,000 to be the best equipped veterinary hospital for street dogs on the island,’ explains Janey.

‘This will allow us to treat to the best of our ability and provide ICU, diagnostic, inpatient and rehabilation facilities to dogs who have no owners to look out for them.

‘Sri Lanka has fast become a trendy tourist destination, so this is a way for animal-loving holidaymakers who are looking for a way to give something back.

‘I feel that a) there should be a worldwide veterinary standard and b) I don’t think any animal in need should go without veterinary care, whether they’re a street dog in Nigeria or a pet dog in New York.

‘Ultimately, we want to branch out worldwide, but we currently have our work cut out here in Sri Lanka, so maybe we’re dreaming a little too hard at this stage, but we hope to get there one day.’

What to do if you see a sick or injured street dog while on holiday in Sri Lanka

If you’re not in an area that WECare covers, it can advise on cases nationwide, whether that means referring you to the nearest available professional help or giving you advice on how you can help yourself.